McKay, A History of Western Society for AP®, 11e, Chapter 15

Peace of Westphalia

The name of a series of treaties that concluded the Thirty Years' War in 1648 and marked the end of large-scale religious violence in Europe.

Fronde

A series of violent uprisings during the early reign of Louis XIV triggered by growing royal control and oppressive taxation.

mercantilism

A system of economic regulations aimed at increasing the power of the state based on the belief that a nation's international power was based on its wealth, specifically its supply of gold and silver.

Peace of Utrecht

A series of treaties, from 1713 to 1715, that ended the War of the Spanish Succession, ended French expansion in Europe, and marked the rise of the British Empire.

Junkers

The nobility of Brandenburg and Prussia, they were reluctant allies of Frederick William in his consolidation of the Prussian state.

boyars

The highest-ranking members of the Russian nobility.

Cossacks

Free groups and outlaw armies originally comprising runaway peasants living on the borders of Russian territory from the fourteenth century onward. By the end of the sixteenth century they had formed an alliance with the Russian state.

sultan

The ruler of the Ottoman Empire; he owned all the agricultural land of the empire and was served by an army and bureaucracy composed of highly trained slaves.

janissary corps

The core of the sultan's army, composed of slave conscripts from non-Muslim parts of the empire; after 1683 it became a volunteer force.

millet system

A system used by the Ottomans whereby subjects were divided into religious communities, with each millet (nation) enjoying autonomous self-government under its religious leaders.

constitutionalism

A form of government in which power is limited by law and balanced between the authority and power of the government on the one hand, and the rights and liberties of the subjects or citizens on the other hand; could include constitutional monarchies or republics.

republicanism

A form of government in which there is no monarch and power rests in the hands of the people as exercised through elected representatives.

Puritans

Members of a sixteenth-and seventeenth-century reform movement within the Church of England that advocated purifying it of Roman Catholic elements, such as bishops, elaborate ceremonials, and wedding rings.

Protectorate

The English military dictatorship (1653-1658) established by Oliver Cromwell following the execution of Charles I.

Test Act

Legislation, passed by the English Parliament in 1673, to secure the position of the Anglican Church by stripping Puritans, Catholics, and other dissenters of the right to vote, preach, assemble, hold public office, and teach at or attend the universities.

stadholder

The executive officer in each of the United Provinces of the Netherlands, a position often held by the princes of Orange.